Is Data Our New Voice?

We live in a digital economy where data is becoming the most valuable resource to us today. Companies across all industries are learning to extract data from their products and services and are leveraging them to bring better security and enhanced user experiences to their customers. McKinsey predicts that the value of connected car data could reach $1.5 trillion by 2030. Today, connected cars are generating about 25 GB per hour, that is equal to about a dozen HD movies and exceeds the storage capacity of most smartphones. A single autonomous test vehicle produces about 30 TB per day, which is 3,000 times the scope of Twitter’s daily data (270 million users produce about 100 GB of data per day). Understanding different ways to cope with these massive amounts of automotive data can be quite a challenge, in this article we draw analogies to other industries to conceptualize a regulatory framework to create, manage and protect data effectively.

Money = Bank Account, Data = ?

The rise of internet usage has led to the explosion of data. In every internet minute, about 4.1 million videos are viewed on Youtube, nearly 1 million people log into Facebook and $750,000 is spent on e-commerce among billions of other data transactions taking place on the internet. These numbers are growing each year. According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG), automotive data monetization including connectivity will grow to a $28 billion business by 2035 from $1 billion today. As software-defined cars are enhanced with additional software, hardware and connectivity features, more and more data will be generated. Glen De Vos, CTO at Aptiv, says the company stores about 2 TB of data per day and has learned over the years what it needs to keep and what it can discard, but also says its data-storage demands today are greater than the amount of data Delphi (now Aptiv) generated over more than a century. It is clear that the automotive industry has not escaped the data explosion.

If data is the new currency, then it must be treated like virtual money. Thereby, we need to create a system that will act like a bank account to manage this new currency effectively. Banks store our money and keep track of every transaction, but they do not have the authority to use or sell that money without the approval of the account holder. If there are frauds taking place, they can be traced by credit cards or payment history. They are also under continuous scrutiny by regulatory bodies to ensure that there are in compliance with all federal and state policies. They ensure extra security layers to prevent fraudulent transactions. Imagine a system where companies have individual data platforms that work like bank accounts where the account holders can manage their data, companies can use data to generate revenue after acquiring the account holder’s consent and regulatory bodies can continuously monitor these data transactions.

Telecommunications = Lawful Interception,
Connected Cars = ?

In 2017, there were more than 8 billion mobile connections around the world. We make voice calls, send text messages, instant messages, emails, file transfers and many more using cellular technologies. Imagine the amount of data generated just in one day. However, we are not worried about the privacy of these calls and messages because the telecommunications industry has a regulatory framework around privacy that restricts the collection and sharing of data. However, a process called ‘The Lawful Interception of Communications’ is necessary in modern telecommunications networks in order to help law enforcement agencies with the investigation and prosecution of criminal activities. This process enables a Law Enforcement Agency (LEA) to perform electronic surveillance on an individual (a target) as authorized by a judicial or administrative order. The surveillance is performed through the use of wiretaps on traditional telecommunications and internet services in voice, data and multiservice networks.

Connected and autonomous vehicles will generate 4 TB of data per hour per vehicle. The future holds an ecosystem where vehicles will be able to communicate with everything, Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) – including Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V), Vehicle-to-Pedestrian (V2P), Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I), Vehicle-to-Device (V2D), Vehicle-to-Home (V2H), Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) and Vehicle-to-Network (V2N). Imagine a scenario where the communication between vehicles and the cloud or other third-party data platforms can be continuously monitored by regulatory bodies through lawful interception. This could hold OEMs, suppliers and tech companies accountable, ensuring that they are compliant with all state and federal laws, especially those around data privacy. With cyber-crime costs on the rise, accounting for about $6 trillion per year by 2021, lawful interception could also become a useful legal tool to track and penalize those who abuse automotive data and cause people harm. With the help of remote operators, it could also enable emergency services to deal with critical situations and hopefully save human lives.

Data monetization will be a key element of most automotive business models going forward. For example, the automotive software that is integrated into vehicles will need to be updated with new software down the road. Over-the-air (OTA) technology provides a bi-directional data delivery capability that can report vehicle diagnostics, prognostics and enable preventative analytics, which lets car makers react in real-time to their customers and can provide data to third-party companies for insurance and other purposes. Collecting massive amounts of data is not worth anything unless smart analytics is applied to it or an ability to actually mine that data is developed, especially in a world where machine learning algorithms can provide valuable insights. While the opportunity to monetize data from connected cars exists, understanding privacy issues and the business impact of data ownership might prove to be the ultimate roadblock. If data is our new voice, what we need is a regulatory framework with the freedom to innovate, helping us create, manage and protect our data effectively.

As the auto industry is changed by technological and economic currents, OEMs and Tier-1 manufacturers will need to partner with technological specialists to thrive in the era of the software defined car. Movimento’s expertise is rooted in our background as an automotive company. This has allowed us to create the technological platform that underpins the future of the software driven and self-driven car. Connect with us today to learn more about how we can work together.